Fight Path: Bodybuilding family helped set Ricky Legere down road to MMA

When he talked with his friends, Ricky Legere would hear stories about fast food meals and wonderful junk food that they were eating.

Happy Meals? That sounded glorious to the California kid. But that wasn’t near his reality.

“My dad would give us something good for us and say, ‘Happy?'” Legere told MMAjunkie. “No Happy Meals though.”

That was part of the lifestyle for the Legere family, with a father who competed in bodybuilding competitions and a mother who also went through a bodybuilding and health magazine stretch. Theirs was a life of well-planned meals and comfort in the gym.

Even though Legere didn’t participate in bodybuilding while growing up, the skills have later served him well. The 27-year-old, who was once a fight away from being a member of the house on “The Ultimate Fighter 16,” has won eight straight fights to run his record to 18-4, including a short-notice Tachi Palace Fights victory in August.

Legere is now waiting for his next opportunity, hoping to build on the momentum that started with his first of the consecutive wins in July 2010. Trying to stick as closely as possible to a regular fighting schedule, he prefers a regular stream of fights, every three to four months or so.

That schedule has helped him build a hefty fight total competing mostly at welterweight. In the meantime, he has taken a job at the UFC Gym in Corona, Calif., helping run a youth department to teach kids about the basics of MMA and self-defense.

They’re skills that he has used well for his own purposes, continuing a desire that started when he was young to exceed expectations.

“I always wanted to be better than what people thought I would be,” he said. “I didn’t just want to do what people thought I would do.”

Healthy lifestyle

The Legere house in Norco, Calif., was a place to take care of one’s body from the start.

The family lived in a small town that provided plenty of opportunities for Legere and his brother to head outside to bike race and explore. Their father had been a football player when he was younger, but he transitioned into bodybuilding later.

Also a police officer, Legere’s father helped his sons understand the importance of watching what they ate and taking care of themselves.

“I first went to gym with him when I was about 7 or 8, and he got me into doing some light stuff,” Legere said. “They were just good fundamentals for us to know.”

Legere didn’t enter the bodybuilding world because he focused more on other athletic pursuits like football, baseball and wrestling. But he had plenty of exposure to it as his father regularly appeared in competitions. His mother even got involved for a time, competing herself and appearing in bodybuilding-related magazines.

Early on, he got a taste of what motivates him. When he was starting out in football, those who were more familiar with the process told him it was unlikely he would play right away because the newer and younger players often had to wait their turn. Then he quickly ended up as a starter.

“I didn’t just want to do what was expected,” he said.

He had been a fan of MMA and watched events on television, and he often thought of getting involved in the sport. So after he finished his education and was working construction, he thought it would be worth getting his start. He walked into a gym in 2007 and tried out his first jiu-jitsu class, and the teacher had an immediate challenge for him.

“He said, ‘Oh a wrestler huh?'” Legere said. “He said, ‘Put this on,’ and he handed me a gi. I didn’t know what to expect, because he was like 125 pounds. Then he started throwing me around and I submitted a couple times, and I thought, ‘This is something I want to do.'”

Piling up fights

Because he was new to MMA, Legere’s coach wanted to start him out in some jiujitsu tournaments to make him more comfortable with the movements and the action. In one of those tournaments, he faced off against WEC and UFC veteran Justin Levens, though he didn’t yet really know who Levens was.

“It was a tough match,” he said. “Later someone told me more about him, and that helped even more. I was hooked.”

Legere became a professional immediately and started his career in October 2007. He won his first six fights at King of the Cage shows, and in his seventh fight he took on Waachiim Spiritwolf and had his worst performance to date, losing by a second-round knockout.

That was motivation for him to change and improve his training, and he had a chance to gauge his progress when he again took on Spiritwolf for a King of the Cage title. This time, Legere won by second-round knockout.

From there, he got invitations to bigger shows, including Bellator and Strikeforce. In 2012 he was invited to “TUF” but lost a unanimous decision fight to get into the house to Jon Manley, who went on to be a semifinalist. That came during his current winning streak, which he continued in August by topping Joey Cabezas.

Now Legere is looking to continue his success and stay on a frequent fighting schedule. The good news is, if he ever needs some training or nutrition help, he knows who to call.

“When I need to shed some pounds, he’s the guy,” Legere said. “He has so much knowledge, it’s a great help for me.”

Catching up

Last month, Charles Rosa told MMAjunkie his story of learning early fighting skills in hockey locker rooms and trading his culinary career for his fighting career. He went on to improve his record to 6-0 on Dec. 6 when he topped Ralph Johnson at CES MMA XX by first-round submission.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

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